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Wednesday, 15 August 2018

An Israeli looks around the world, and is happy where he is.

Israel is affected by the way Western politicians fail to fully
comprehend the machinations of the Middle East. They and their diplomats are
overly obsessed with doing business with dictators for the good of their
national economies. It is far more important that their conglomerates and
corporations are neatly intertwined with the ruling elite. It would be unseemly
to be seen to be curious about the rumblings of discontent. That may disturb commercial
relationships, and potential future lucrative non-governmental careers in the
Arab and Islamic world. After all, good commercial ties with such regimes is
ultimately good for the people. Right? Wrong. Just look at Iran as a prime
example how wrong that platitude is.

Israeli writer, Amotz Asa-El, gave the Libyan example of the
stupefaction of Western leaders as evidenced by total failures in grasping the
nature of the Middle East beast in a recent article. The screw up by Western
leaders has led to disastrous social and economic results for many European
countries. Asa-El reminds us that in 2009 European leaders sold more than 344
million Euro of arms to Gaddafi and then, just a few years later, applauded his
downfall to rebels who were celebrated by Britain’s Cameron and France’s
Sarkozy who looked on Mustafa Abdul Jalil, who headed the Libyan National Transition
Council as a liberator by claiming that “this will be a Libyan-led and Libyan-owned
process with broad support.”

Cameron said he was in close contact with Jalil. A few weeks
later, Jalil declared that new Libyan law would be based on Sharia.

These European leaders were blissfully unaware that the
liberation they were celebrating was the start of Europe’s disintegration under
the weight of the human tsunami as Libya opened the floodgates to millions of
North Africans and Arabs, mainly Muslim, some Islamic.

As an Israeli I had no empathy for the mad dictator Gaddafi. However, they should have listened to him when he warned them, as
NATO bombed his country, that, “Now you people in NATO, listen to me. You are
bombing the walls that stopped African immigration” into Europe.

They didn’t listen. They didn’t comprehend what he was
trying to tell them. Instead, they breached the wall, toppled Gaddafi, opened
the way for an Islamic Sharia governance in Libya that has no respect for
Europe and its values, and who have swamped Europe with millions of migrants
who have no understanding or concern for Western values. Some came to exploit
the opportunities. Other have come to exploit the system.

Part of the Western diplomatic shortcomings was that they
were fine dealing with dictators and their corrupt henchmen, particularly those
who sat on oil wells and dirty contracts with European and American conglomerates
and corporations. For here was the potential for future lucrative careers after
they shuffled off their governmental roles and entered private life with
interesting and well placed people.

While in their overseas governmental positions their main
task was schmoozing the decision makers, those that could sign hefty contracts.
The concerns of the population were none of their concern. Sympathizing with the
down-trodden got in the way of carrying out what they had been promoted to
achieve, the trade that kept wheels of power, and private palms, well-greased.

And when these Middle Eastern potentates added a condition
to support them in their condemnation of Israel in international forums it was
easy to give the nod.

They misread the tealeaves as millions took to Arab streets.
They watched, expressing sympathy for the rioters only when the toppling of
their favored dictator looked certain. They called it “the Arab Spring,”
though those close to the action, like Israeli national security and intelligence
experts, warned it was closer to becoming a stormy Islamic Winter than an Arab
Spring. Events in the Middle East and North Africa proved the cynical Israel
realists were closer to the truth than blundering Western politicians and their
totally unprepared national security heads. Just look at the Obama-praised
Muslim Brotherhood Morsi who usurped power from Mubarak, or Libya and the murder
of Ambassador Stephens and his security team as the president, the NSA, CIA chiefs
and Secretary of State Clinton waffled, blaming it on an amateur video, and did
nothing to rescue the trapped but fighting crew at the US compound in Benghazi.
Look at the failure of Obama red lines in Syria, the mocking of ISIS as a “JV
team,” the sucking up to the Islamic Republic of Iran at any costs to get
the awful nuclear deal done, and the all too slow realization that parts of Europe
have become cultural and social nightmares for the indigenous population.

As Israel watches the unraveling of Europe, hear the fears
of local Jews, witnesses the insanity of American Democrats demanding open
borders, sanctuary cities that protect criminal illegal migrants and endanger their
lawful citizens, it seems that the outside world has gone mad.

We have built our border fences and, where necessary, border
walls, despite the outpouring of condemnation, and we are, statistically proven,
safer because of it.

We allow into our country the people we want in our
country, those with a commitment to the betterment of our land. Those that come
because they want to belong here as part of our people.

We live in a dangerous neck of the woods constantly on our
guard against deadly enemies far and near. That's why we have the best fighting force in the world, out of sheer necessity.

And yet Israelis are among the happiest
and confident people in the world.

This feeling is only emphasized when we see the political
and social chaos that is affecting Europe, Britain, and America.

Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy
at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.